America needs leadership on energy ///

As I sat down to gather my thoughts for this article, I looked over what the preceding NOIA chairman wrote for this column last year and realized just how much has changed in that time. Just one year ago, our still-undecided presidential election was fueling rancorously partisan fights. California was reeling from a full-blown electricity crisis, complete with brownouts. And politicians rushed to deflect the blame for the truly spectacular regulatory bungling.
At that time, our industry was the focus of much attention, both good and bad. Most NOIA member companies were doing a brisk business, thanks to high commodity prices, a soaring world economy and surging energy demand. However, those high prices ushered in their own problems. From many quarters, we heard demagogues distort economics to fit conspiracy theories, while ignoring results of our failed policy of "no policy" on energy.